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Harwood, Edward: Biographia Classica: The Lives and Characters of the Greek and Roman Classics. A New Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, With Some Additional Lives; and A List of the Best Editions of Each Author. London: T.Becket and T. Evans, 1778. Second edition. 2 vols. 12mo., pp.[ii], vi, [iv], 376; [iv], 307, [i]. Contemporary lightly speckled tan calf, raised bands, red morocco gilt title labels, edges sprinkled red. Dressing has been applied to the spines (and slightly over onto the boards) rendering them a little darker in colour. Volume 1: old paper label at tail of spine, tiny hole to upper joint. Volume 2: endcaps worn with a little loss at tail, lower hinge just starting to split at head but sound. Both volumes rubbed, corners starting to fray but still a very good, internally clean set. Small printed label of Henry David Forbes(-Mitchell) of Balgownie (1790-1869) to each front paste-down. Henry was the son of Duncan Forbes-Mitchell, 1st Laird of Thainston. Balgownie (formerly Fraserfield) was the Aberdeenshire estate inherited by his wife Katherine Fraser (d.1839), whom he married in 1816. First published (anonymously) in 1740, printed by Daniel Browne. ESTC N16541 Ref: 51477

Heinsius, Daniel: Poematum. Editio Nova. Accedunt præter alia Libri, de contemptu mortis antehac una non editi. Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden]: Elzeviriorum and J. Maire, 1621. 2 vols in one. 8vo., pp. [viii], 474, [ii]; [viii], 167, [xix]. Woodcut printer's device to title page and some woodcut initials to text, small portrait of Homer to p. 264. De Contemptu Mortis has its own title page in red and black with the same device, and its colophon names Isaac Elzevir as the printer. Small piece cut from top corner of f.f.e.p., a little staining to title page, three leaves with small chips from blank lower margins, one of them just touching text and sometime repaired with a few letters supplied in manuscript. Contemporary vellum, long sides overlapping, title inked to spine, edges sprinkled red. Library code inked to spine, some faint brown stains to upper board, rear endpaper tearing a little where turn-in is lifting. Ownership inscription of O. Preuss, Detmold, 1844 to front pastedown. The second part, printed by Isaac Elzevier, enjoying "une tres grande vogue", was reproduced textually from the first, and separate, quarto edition of the same year. Willems 187. Ref: 43834

Heraclides Ponticus: [Nicolaus of Damascus:] (Craigius, Nicholas, ed.:) Heraclidae Pontici De politiis libellus. [[...] De moribus gentium [...]] [Bound after:] De Republica Lacedaemoniorum Libri IV [...] Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden], Ex officina Joannis a Gelder [colophon: Excudebat Abrahamus Verhoef] 1670. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 573, [iii], with final blank. Title-page with woodcut printer's tortoise vignette, two section-titles with the same vignette. Greek and Latin letter. Light waterstaining, bound in contemporary vellum boards, long sides overlapping, gilt stamps of Society of Writers to the Signet, binding soiled, bottom cover slightly warped. Reprint of the 1593 'editio princeps' of the 4th century BCE Greek-speaking philosopher Heraclides Ponticus's fragmentary work on justice, edited by Nicholas Cragius (1546-1602). It is preceded by Cragius' monograph on the Spartan state, and followed by his edition of the first-cent. Greek-speaking Nicolaus of Damascus' work on 'strange people's customs', which was dedicated to Herod the Great and preserved through excerption by the fifth century anthologist Stobaeus. Schweiger I 133, I 213. Ref: 21339

Hody, Humphrey: De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus, Versionibus Graecis, & Latina Vulgata: Libri IV. Oxonii [Oxford]: e Theatro Sheldoniano, 1705. Folio, pp.[xii], XXXVI, 664 + portrait frontispiece. Printer's device to title-page. Very clean and bright internally. Contemporary light tan calf, raised bands, tan morocco gilt title label, blind-tooled frame to each board, edges sprinkled red. A bit rubbed, spine slightly faded, a few small chips and scratches plus slight surface worming near top corner of upper board, endpapers a little toned. An excellent copy. Small paper library labels at head and tail of spine. To the front paste-down, armorial bookplate from the Earl of Macclesfield's North Library, dated 1860. The same crest with the motto Sapere Aude appears as a small embossed stamp to frontis, title and dedication. To the top corner of the ffep, 'Hodij de Septuagint' written in an old hand. De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus was the last of Hody's (1659–1707) works to be published in his lifetime. In his earliest publication, Contra Historiam Aristeae de LXX Interpretibus Dissertatio (Oxford, 1684), Hody had shown that Aristeas' letter containing an account of the production of the Septuagint was a forgery. Isaac Vossius published an vitriolic reply to this in the appendix to his edition of Pomponius Mela (1686). Here, Hody issues a reply to Vossius's criticisms as well as revisiting his original work on the Septuagint. 'In his will, made in November 1706, he wished that all copies of his last book unsold at the time of his death should be "disposed of beyond Sea and let none be sold in England besides those perhaps of the larger paper"' (ODNB) Hody's final work De Graecis Illustribus, was published posthumously in 1742 by Samuel Jebb. ESTC T86088 Ref: 51768

Home, Francis: Medical Facts and Experiments. London: A. Millar [...] and A. Kincaid and J. Bell at Edinburgh, 1759. First edition. 8vo., pp.[viii], 288. A little spotting and patchy toning, paper flaw causing a short tear to fore-edge margin pp.161-2. 20th-century library binding, quarter tan morocco with tan arbelave buckram boards, raised bands and red gilt title label to spine, endpapers renewed, hinges reinforced with cloth. Spine rubbed and a little faded with some evidence of a removed label at tail, very good overall. To the front paste-down and title-page, inkstamps (and 'Cancelled' stamp) from the National Institute for Medical Research Council Library; library label to ffep. Pasted to the verso of a replacement blank, facing the title-page, a clipped-out piece of original endpaper with MS inscription reading 'The Medical Research Committee / 25th April 1917'. Letter confirming that the book is no longer property of the library loosely inserted. In 1757 Home's Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation was published in Edinburgh by Hamilton and Balfour. In 1758 Hamilton, Balfour and Neill published Home's major work, Principia Medicinae, a scientific history of disease. Principia Medicinae greatly enhanced Home's reputation, particularly in Europe and America where it found a large audience for whom it served as a textbook. Running into several editions, it was still in use well into the nineteenth century. After such success Hamilton wanted to produce a second edition of Princliples of Agriculture and Vegetation but Home rather craftily wrote to Millar instead, asking what he would be prepared to offer in order to publish it himself. Millar successfully won the right to produce the second edition and at the same time paid Home for Medical Facts and Experiments, which appeared in 1759. ESTC T120708 Ref: 51841

[Homer] [Cooke, Thomas:] Tales, Epistles, Odes, Fables, &c. With Translations from Homer and Other Antient Authors. To Which are Added Proposals for Perfecting the English Language. London: printed for T. Green, 1729. First edition. 8vo., pp. [ii], iv, [ii], 214, [ii]. Includes blank leaf after the Dedication, and final publisher's catalogue leaf. Woodcut initials and head-pieces. Slight dampstain to lower fore-edge corner most visible at front and rear, with a faint pink tinge to a few lower margins due to a small drop of red ink to the tail edge that has bled inwards. Slightly speckled tan calf, raised bands, double fillet border, edges sprinkled red. Joints a bit worn and beginning to split at head and tail but boards sound, headcap lost, a few light scrapes, front endpaper dampstained, a very good copy overall. To front paste-down: a few pencilled bookseller's notes; large spade-shield armorial bookplate, 'Leeds' with the motto 'Pax in Bello'; small book label of Ian Jack. The bookplate appears to be that of George William Frederick Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (1775-1838). The shield shows the Osborne and Darcy arms of his father and mother, the Townsend arms of his wife Charlotte and the arms of the Earls of Oxford, from whom his paternal grandmother was descended (Elizabeth was the youngest daughter of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer). Osborne was styled Earl of Danby until 1789 and Marquess of Carmarthen from 1789 to 1799, and served in George Canning's government as Master of the Horse between 1827 and 1830. He also was Governor of Scilly. 'In 1725 [Cooke] issued anonymously a poem entitled The Battle of the Poets, attacking Pope, Swift, and their friends, and eulogizing the writers of his own school. He continued the campaign by publishing in the Daily Journal (6 April 1728) notes on Pope's version of the Thersites episode in the second book of the Iliad, proving to his own satisfaction that Pope was no Greek scholar. Pope resolved to pillory Cooke in the Dunciad, but news of his intention reached Cooke, and he, taking alarm, wrote two letters to Pope (11 August and 16 September 1728), repudiating his connection with the offensive publications. With the second letter he forwarded a copy of his newly issued translation of Hesiod. In letters to Lord Oxford, Pope showed some sign of accepting Cooke's denial, but when the Dunciad appeared at the close of the year, Cooke occupied a place in it (B ii. 138), and was held up to ridicule in the notes.' (ODNB) Tales, Epistles, Odes, Fables, &c constitutes Cooke's reply to Pope's ridicule, including a new version of his original attack on Pope, Battle of the Poets, as well as reprinting his letters concerning the Thersites episode and adding new and scathing prefaces. He describes Pope as 'a person who with but a small share of learning and moderate natural endowments has by concurring and uncommon accidents acquired as great a reputation as the most learned and exalted genius could ever hope'. Cooke also includes several of his other published poems, some classical translations and other essays. ESTC T139160 Ref: 52192

[Horace] Horatius Flaccus, Quintus: Opera. Londini [London]: Iohannes Pine, 1733; 1737. First issue of the sole edition, with "Post Est" rather than the correct "Potest" engraved around the Caesar medal (vol. 2, p.108). 2 vols., 8vo., pp., (xxxii), 176, [ii], 177-264, [ii]; [xxiv], 48, [ii], 49-94, [ii], 95-152, [ii], 153-172, [ii], 173-191, (xvi). With multiple lists of subscribers to each volume, but without the printed list of antiquities found in one of the three Rothschild copies. Entirely engraved by John Pine, with frontispieces, title vignettes, 8 full-page illustrations, culs-de-lampe,and 4-line opening initial to each poem. Vol.I has a small intermittent stain to the lower margin near the gutter, a handful of upper corners creased, occasional light foxing. Contemporary dark brown calf, gilt spines with red and green title labels (the green possibly replaced or sympathetically retooled), all edges red. Spines rubbed with tail of vol.II quite worn, joints neatly repaired, a few scuffs, endpapers a little toned, a very good copy. Armorial bookplate of Francis Eyre (c.1732-1804) of Warkworth to front paste-down. Eyre was a Roman Catholic apologist and arbitrator, publishing several works in his lifetime including, in 1778 and 1779, pamphlets 'criticizing Edward Gibbon's irreligiosity in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' (ONDB). A serviceable copy of the most sumptuous edition of Horace. Each page of the work was entirely engraved; the text had two frontispieces, 27 individual headpieces, and individual vignette illustrations and initials numbering respectively a colossal 324 and 164 respectively. Subscribers to this "splendid performance" (Dibdin) included the kings of England, France, Spain and Portugal, as well as the Holy Roman Emperor. A truly international enterprise, lists of lesser subscribers came from Dublin, Paris, Madrid, and Holland. Both Richard Bentley, author of textually the most famous Horace of the period, and George Talbot, on whose edition of 1699-1701 Pine's Horace was based, bought advance copies. ESTC T46226; Brunet III, 320; Rothschild 1546-1548. Ref: 49921